Religious Studies

The history evidences: the Local Churches that were historically associated with earthly empires were uninterested in the canonical establishment of local churches under their jurisdictions, and therefore usually granted autocephaly to churches only under the pressure of historic circumstances. No exception is the Moscow Patriarchate, which has incorporated the Orthodox Church in Ukraine since 1686.

Ukrainian Orthodoxy and Ukrainian society suffer from division. The majority of Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. The rest of the Orthodox community of Ukraine has chosen a different path of self-proclaimed autocephaly. However, neither the first nor the second path is optimal for the Orthodox Church in Ukraine to date.

Prayer breakfast at the Ukrainian parliament

Parliamentary Prayer Breakfast under the auspices of the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov was held on Wednesday with participation of representatives from the church, NGOs and religious organizations of Ukraine, as well as foreign guests, diplomatic missions and the people’s deputies of Ukraine, Press Service of Verkhovna Rada informs.

Addressing participants of the event, Oleksandr Turchynov reminded that the tradition of Prayer Breakfasts originates from the USA and “has stricken roots in Ukraine.” “All those who participated in the Prayer Breakfast felt unity that cannot be reached artificially but only when people with different views and standings are united in a prayer to God,” he said.

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada is convinced that when different leaders and politicians from different countries communicate through prayer “they will no longer be able to look through sights or humiliate each other. They will hear each other, which is extremely important.”

Commenting on the situation in Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov noted that the country now lives through the most dramatic days in its history, having faced a challenge on the part of the Russian Federation that initiated aggression in the East of our country. In this context, he cited the Bible saying that “the Babylon will always remain destroyed, since its walls are built on human fear and disbelief.”